A number of foot conditions affect primarily the rear foot or heel portion of the foot. Post-operative surgical shoes are designed in a number of ways including a dominant type that removes the weight from the forefoot. There are no known post-operative or surgical shoes that effectively remove weight from the rear foot while covering and protecting the heel portion of the foot.
It is therefore a primary object of the present invention to aid health care providers in treating patients with conditions of the rear foot that are made worse by weight bearing and to allow the patient to become ambulatory much earlier than they could in conventional shoes.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a shoe designed to be used by patients who have either had surgery of the rear foot, trauma to the rear foot, or heel pain that is aggravated by weight bearing such as heel spur syndrome, plantar fascitis, calcinosis, Achilles tendonitis, or have skin lesions, ulcers or infections of the rear foot area where reduction of weight would enhance the healing process and allow the patient to be ambulatory.